Camera test - Xiomi Note

This afternoon i went to the Al-Bukhary Mosque for afternoon prayers and took this to see if the phone is capable to handle landscape photography. The images were processed by using Snapseed and instagram respectively. What do you think?

Processed in Snapseed 

Processed in Instagram 

This one was taken yesterday morning to test its bokeh quality and macro capability, and was not processed in any way.

Straight out of the camera

Update - Night shot.

A New MIUI Experience.

Im an avid MIUI fan.. I had my first MIUI experience back in 2012 when I was using the TSM Merbau U4 (a china phone). It was the first custom rom that I tried to flash to replace the stock rom for an android device. Heck, I even compiled my first cwm on that TSM U4.

Fast forward a few (quite a handful actually) android based smartphone later and now I own an actual Xiomi device running the official MIUI - the Xiomi/Redmi Note, an 8 cores beauty.

I just own the device for a few hours and I already spflashing and stuff. God I love tinkering with roms. Learn quite a few tricks today.

I leave you with an image of the Redmi Note captured earlier today.

One more thing, Im trying to port the MIUI to the THL T6S. From what I learned from the MIUI porting team, since the T6S comes with KitKat, I need to find similiar devices which already has a MIUI ported (KitKat or not).

Good night.

Carliv Recovery for the THL T6S

I was a bit worried with the cwm recovery that I had created a few days ago. Its because the recovery is a cwm v5+. As far as I know, kitkat doesnt work with v5+. I need  cwm v6+.

And I stumble to Carliv's thread on the XDA (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2759981). So, I did as the instructions there and walla.. a cwm 6+ recovery. You can grab it here.

As you can see, it's still upside down.. :). Well, does it work? Creating backup - yes. Restoring a backup - not tested yet.

To finish off, some shots of the 2 touch (good enough for a 4 yrs old) ips screen.

Good night.

Cwm recovery image for the THS T6S

Just a quick update at this early morning (almost 3am to be exact).

To my russian comrades, sorry that I had forgotten to mention about the red charging LED. And about the 2 touch thing and 10fps video shooting, I'll find a way to test those tomorrow or on Sunday. :)

Antutu score (on stock unrooted rom).Good enough for a 4 years old I guess.

I had created an entry on how to root and install the cwm here.

Im out of here. Leave a comment if u have anything to inquire.

Unboxing and Initial review of the THL T6S

I was looking for a budget phone for my 4 years old son. Yes, for a 4 years old kid who still cant talk straight. Some might say that Im spoiling him but, thats for another discussion.

I logged in to a local merchant's website, here in Malaysia, last Saturday (16 Aug 2014) and was expecting to spend around RM400 ($126) at least for a phone of around 4.5"-5" screen, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage.

To my surprise, a phone which suite my required needs was advertised for almost half of my budget - the THL T6S. A quick search on the google didnt return much informative review, just the specifications and images. To cut the story short, I went ahead and ordered the phone.

This morning, I received a call from the courier delivery guy asking if I would be in the office at around 11am to receive a package. I smiled. In fact, I grinned.

The phone came in a properly packed bag.

The phone's box was encapsulated in a bubbled wrapped plastic. I'd give 10/10 on shipping efford.

The back of the box - the phone's main specification was printed.

The box''s content. 1 x phone without battery. 2 x 1900mAh battery (slim, like 4mm's slim). 1 x charging plug (with a mere 0.5A output). 1 x USB cable. 1 x screen protector. 1 x earphone cum handsfree device. 1 x plastic transparent hard back case. Not bad, especially for including the extra battery and the case.

The dual sim slot (stacked, to be inserted horizontally with sim 1 using the micro sim size and sim 2 using the normal sim size. I would prefer a separate slot for both sims but again, this is an ultra budget phone.

Without any further ado, I slap the battery in and turn the phone on. The power button is on the right hand side and .. clickable. So are the volume up/down buttons which was located on the left hand side. I like this configuration than putting the power button on the top or on the same side as the volume buttons.

The boot image was nothing more than glowing THL logo and some simple logo dissolving animation(I didnt pay much attention to the boot process, which didnt take too long).

The default launcher is the Launcher3. I noticed that icons are themed. Also included was a few chinese pre-installed apps such as the Baidu Browser, App Market and DU Speed Booster. I would say that the screen is beyond expectation. The contrast and saturation are on par with my Galaxy S3. Even my colleagues are impressed with the quality of the screen.

So, being a MIUI fan, I went ahead and installed the Mi Launcher, just to have a taste of it. God, I love the screen.

Well, thats all I can share with you right now. If you are curious about the gaming capabilities, I'd say that Minion Rush is playable and Samurai Rush II ran smoothly. Connectivity wise, both wifi and bluetooth are working fine.

I'll do a benchmark tonight and post it tomorrow. Till then.

*UPDATE : Rooting guide here

Both Sim card slot are working properly.

I'm digitized!

The title would raised a few questions.. known as an IT guy among people who are close to me, one would ask "Are'nt you digital enough? You have a lot of electronic gadgets and you are using a digital camera (they are referring to the DSLR).. what more is there to be digitized?"

Well, I thought there's nothing more to be digitized around me, until Friday, 11th January 2013. I had converted from analogue (the traditional with 4000+ harmful chemicals or so, on top of smelly smoke etc) to digital cigarette @ e-cigerette @ e-cig ( 4 ingredients, oil based liquid turn into vapor via heating process).

My eGo-T with DCT Tank

To boast that I had completely nicotine free is an overstatement since the liquid used by the e-cig does contain nicotine. Well, at least now, my wife and the people I bumped into daily does not complain on the smoke and the nasty smell.

E-cig, to me, is a very good tool/method you can use to free yourself completely from not only cigarette but also from nicotine, excluding the ones you got from coffee or tea.I had used patches and chewing gum but to no success. Not to mention, they (patches and chewing gum) are expensive too..

So, if you are an analogue smoker and you would like to quit smoking, give it a try.

Getting the best out of you Android Device

Im currently easing down a level or two on my photography adventures. Its not because the lack of interest but the fact that Im a bit short of funding (to buy the new Canon 6D.. :P!

The Samsung Galaxy W and TSM U4 Merbau

I currently own two Android smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy W and also a china rebranded TSM U4 Merbau (what a creative selection of naming your device TSM). The W is currently running the SlimBean ROM, which had bring a welcomed improvement both in the interface and performance wise. The U4 on the other hand, is running ICS 4.0.3, not that I'm not interested to flash a custom ROM into it but the face that there is no custom ROM for it.. 

With that in mind, Im not going to tweak the W. Instead, I would like to squeeze out whatever juice that the U4 have to offer.

If you are interested to perform the same tweaking and benchmarking on your device, you need these

* Dont hold me responsible if you bricked your device while doing any of these. Do it on your own free will. Im assuming that you have the basic knowledge of changing the settings and have a logic state of mind.

SuperSU and Superuser standard app icon

1. A rooted android device. Required.
Yes, you need to root your device first. To some (even the person who sell me the TSM U4, rooted means upgrading the stock android ROM to a newer version. I tried my best not to laugh at him and just give him a big smile instead). How do you know if your device is rooted? Simple, look at your apps list. Do you see an app named Superuser or SuperSU? No, then your device is not rooted yet. Go and ask uncle Google on how to root your device ( type "root galaxy w" for an example).

BusyBox, Antutu, Pimy My Rom and RebootMenu

 2. Busybox installed and given root permission. Required.
After you had install the app, make sure run run it and give it the root permission. I used to installed it and thought that it will automatically get the root permission..

3. Antutu benchmark. Does not need root permission. Required.
 The standard testing application used to benchmark various electronic devices. Im not going to argue if its the best or the most accurate. We just need a reliable app to test our device. Im only testing the CPU, RAM and Database IO performance.

4.  Pimp My Rom. installed and given root permission. Required.
 The application used to change all the settings of the android device shown here. You may choose other similar apps.

5. RebootMenu and given root permission. Not required.
 Simplify the rebooting process of our device.

6. A good 2 to 3 hours of spare time. Required.

So, are you ready? Go ahead and benchmark your device. Below are the summary of settings used/changes and it's result. You may change the various options available in the Pimp My Rom apps and decide the best settings to be used on your android device.